Citgo reports fire in crude tower at Corpus refinery

The fire ignited on scaffolding around the crude unit’s atmospheric tower, according to two people with knowledge of the incident. The East and West plants have a combined capacity of 157,000 bpd.

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By BARBARA POWELL and LYNN DOAN

Bloomberg

Citgo Petroleum's Corpus Christi refinery in Texas had a fire
in a crude tower at its East plant that was already shut for
planned repairs.

The refinerys emergency response
team is responding to a small construction fire that broke
out at the tower at 12:20 p.m. local time on Wednesday, the
Houston-based company said. The East plant has been shut
since Feb. 6 for the repairs, the company said.

The fire ignited on scaffolding around the crude units
atmospheric tower, according to two people with knowledge of
the incident who asked not to be identified because the
information isnt public. The East and West plants that
make up the Corpus Christi refinery complex have a combined
capacity of 157,000 bpd, data compiled by Bloomberg
show.

The refinery began 35 days of work on Feb. 5 that included
repairs on the crude unit at the East plant and on a coker,
sulfur recovery unit and mixed distillate hydrotreater at the
West plant. A message on a community hot line on Feb. 3 said
that the refinery planned to shut units for
maintenance until March 10.

Due to this scheduled maintenance, there has been no
impact to our operations, the company said. No injuries
have been reported related to the fire, the statement shows.

Citgo is a subsidiary of Petroleos de Venezuela SA, the state
oil company of Venezuela.

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